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Through Friday, August 15,
2008
10:00 AM–5:00 PM, Monday through Friday
Open to the Public and Free of Charge
The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York City
(Building entrance on SW corner of 57th Street and Third Avenue)
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Kyopo (교포) is a Korean term for people of Korean descent who reside permanently outside of the Korean Peninsula. The Kyopo Project is a collection of images created by photographer CYJO to highlight the diversity of the global kyopo community.
Emigration from Korea
to other countries in Asia began as a trickle in the
mid-nineteenth century, and accelerated during the first half of
the twentieth century as the depredations of Japanese colonial rule
increased. A second wave of emigrants began leaving for the Western
Hemisphere, particularly the United States, in the mid-1960s. Kyopo
hail from virtually every country in the world, but the vast majority
reside in just three countries: China, the U.S. and Japan. Today, kyopo number approximately 6.5 million—one for every ten Koreans residing in the Korean Peninsula.
This exhibition features a series of 171 full-length portraits of kyopo
from around the world. It shows each subject in their analogical
plenitude, as Roland Barthes would say, and betrays/displays the
intimate relation of the photographer to the portraits. The subjects
are posed frontally, with their eyes returning the camera's and the
viewer’s gaze. Thus, each subject connects with and mirrors the others,
while also reflecting their inherent differences. Ranging in age from
teenagers to a septuagenarian, they are novelists, actors, teachers,
comedians, athletes, executives and retirees. The striking diversity of
the group—the subjects do not appear to have much in common other than
their Korean ancestry—challenges the idea of a monolithic, authentic
Korean identity and stimulates exploration of what it means to be
Korean. The exhibition also poses the question of how kyopo negotiate the sometimes conflicting expectations and sensibilities arising from their intrinsic bicultural identity.
Asian Diasporas: New Conceptions, New Formations,
a collection of essays co-edited by Rhacel Salazar Parreñas and Lok
Siu, will be available for purchase at The Korea Society during the
exhibition.
About the Artist
Panelists:
CYJO, photographer/artist
Rhacel
Salazar Parreñas, professor, Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis
Lok
Siu professor, anthropology and Asian/Pacific American studies, New York University
Moderator:
Alexandra
Chang, events coordinator, Asian/Pacific/American Institute, New York University
Thursday, May 29
5:30 PM • Opening Reception (free and open to the public)
6:30 PM •
Panel
Discussion on Asian Diasporas
$5
(members) and $10 (non-members)
RSVP
to (212)759-7525, ext. 355 or email or
register online.
Buy tickets
Cindy
Hwang, also known as CYJO, specializes in portraiture. A graduate of
the University of Maryland and the Fashion Institute of Technology,
Hwang has worked in the fashion industry with clients such as Guess
Watches, Equilend, Elle International, Angelo Filomeno and Jessica
Corr. She began her artistic career after publishing a photo in The New York Times.
Rhacel Salazar Parreñas is a professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Davis.
She is a leading scholar on gender, migration and the family in
globalization. She is the author of numerous books and articles. Her
most recent books are the recently published, co-edited collection Asian Diasporas: New Conceptions, New Formations (Stanford University Press, November 2007) and the forthcoming monograph The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization (NYU
Press, August 2008). She has lectured widely on the topics of Asian
diasporas and gender in conferences and universities around the United
States as well as in Asia and Europe. Her book Servants of Globalization (Stanford,
2001) will be published by Alterity Press in Korean. At the panel,
Parreñas will address the importance of situating Asian American
studies in international and global perspectives by looking at the case
of Korean adoptees.
Lok Siu is an associate professor of anthropology and Asian/Pacific American studies at New York University. Her teaching and research interests include diaspora, transnationalism, cultural citizenship and Asians in the Americas. Her book, Memories of a Future Home: Diasporic Citizenship of Chinese in Panama
(Stanford Universiry Press), won the Asian American studies Social
Science book award. Her most recent book publication is the anthology, Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions, which she co-edited with Rhacel Parrenas. She is currently working on a new project on Asian Latino Restaurants in New York City. Siu's talk will recover the history of diasporic Koreans in Latin America and argues for a hemispheric approach to the study of Koreans in the Americas.
For inquiries about the exhibition in The Korea Society Gallery, contact Jinyoung Kim at (212) 759-7525, ext. 316 or email .
This exhibition was made possible in part by support from the Joh Foundation, Andy S. Ree, Asian/Pacific American Institute at New York University, Gie Kim, Alexander Brodsky, the Network of Korean-American Leaders (NetKAL), Bomsinae Kim, P.J. Kim and Hoon-jung Kim. Additional thanks to Timothy Archambault, Stephan Valter, Joseph and Linda Kang Chong, Kevin and Clara Kim, Younmee Shin, Min Yang, Charles No and all The Kyopo Project participants.
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